Accompanied by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Kovind reached Chandigarh, where he was welcomed by former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Haryana's main opposition party, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), has announced its support to National Democratic Alliance's (NDA's) Presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, who was in Chandigarh to meet the legislators.
Accompanied by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Kovind reached Chandigarh, where he was welcomed by former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
After meeting the SAD-BJP legislators in Chandigarh, who assured him of complete support, Kovind reached Panchkula, where he met the BJP legislators from Haryana. Soon after the meeting concluded, he met INLD legislators to seek their support. He was accompanied by Khattar, Anil Jain, in-charge of BJP affairs in Haryana, and the BJP state president Subhash Barala.
"We have decided to support Kovind," INLD's General Secretary Abhay Chautala said after the meeting, adding that the decision to support Kovind was taken after discussing his candidature during the working committee meeting of the party a few days ago. The party had left the decision to party supremo Om Prakash Chautala, who is undergoing his sentence in the teachers' recruitment scam.
"After weighing his credentials and an extensive debate, the party has decided that he is the most suitable candidate for the highest office of the country," Abhay Chautala said while addressing party workers. The party has two members in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha, apart from 19 MLAs in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, which has a BJP majority with 47 MLAs and the support of five Independent members.
"Kovind also paid tributes to late Chaudhary Devi Lal and said that he remembered the day when his statue was unveiled in the complex of the Parliament, and assured that he would remain above party politics," said the INLD spokesperson.
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